VICTAM '95

October 01, 1995
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by Teresa Acklin

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World Grain reviews some of the products featured at the international feed industry trade show.

Every three years since 1965, Victam International has sponsored a trade show and symposium in Utrecht, the Netherlands, for the international feed industry. The latest, VICTAM '95, was held May 16-19, 1995.

About 250 companies from around the world virtually filled the 28,000-square-meter exhibit hall with displays and information about their products and services for the feed industry. The following is a sampling of the companies and their exhibits.

 Monitoring units for feedmills and silos were featured by Agromatic AG, Laupen, Switzerland. Among the latest products was the AMS all-metal detector/separator. The electronic system also is available in individual components for detection or separation use only.

The AMS system uses a magnetic field in a ring coil to detect metals such as aluminum, brass, copper and lead. Presence of metals breaks the magnetic field and transmits an electronic signal to a quick-action shut-off gate. The gate then separates the contaminated material. Particles ranging from 0.7 to 6 millimeters in diameter can be separated, depending on the size of the coil opening.

Agromatic also presented its expanded AgroSerial silo monitoring product. This product consists of a computerized data registration and transfer system that can monitor and record readings from up to 28,000 sensors for level indication, speed control, temperature and humidity and other controls. The system is provided with data interfaces for connection with a personal computer or programmable logic controller.

 Braime Elevator Components, Leeds, U.K., highlighted a series of monitors for conveying systems. The A400 and B400 belt misalignment monitors for bucket elevators and conveyor belts protect against damage and the risk of fire or explosion caused by belt misalignment.

The A400 is designed for all elevators with steel or plastic buckets. It can be used in stand alone systems or can be linked to a programmable logic controller if required. The electronic system uses magnetic non-contact probes for maintenance free, fail safe performance.

The B400 is designed for sensing misalignment of conveyor belts. It uses an alarm and stop control for conveyors and similar equipment.

The company also displayed its T400 bearing temperature monitor for sensing overheated bearings and casings at the show. The monitor can oversee up to 24 bearings per module.

The T400 is easy to install, as the sensors simply screw into bearing grease nipple holes. This monitor also may be used in stand alone systems or linked to a P.L.C.

 The worldwide Buhler Group, Uzwil, Switzerland, presented numerous new developments at the VICTAM '95 trade show. With its Speedmix rapid mixer, Condex expander, Vertica vertical rotor mill and various other equipment and systems, Buhler offered technology enabling feed manufacturers to meet the high requirements of their markets with greater success.

The Speedmix rapid mixer offers high reliability and production flexibility. The optimized geometry of the mixing trough and the carefully matched paddle shape reduce the mixing time to 1.5 minutes, while maintaining a high homogeneity. This means the Speedmix allows 20 mixes to be produced per hour, compared with the 10 achieved by conventional mixing systems.

Buhler's entirely new Condex expander, with its patented die and cutter head, allows for greater product homogeneity, controlled gelatinization, a multitude of possible shapes for direct-expanded formulated feeds and numerous other benefits.

The Vertica vertical rotor mill made its debut at VICTAM '95. It uses size-reduction technology to achieve energy savings of 25% to 40% over conventional hammer mills while allowing enhanced regularity of particle size distribution.

 Innovative storage solutions were offered by Chore-Time Brock International, Milford, Indiana, U.S. With a variety of sizes, the company's grain and hopper storage silos can handle most requirements.

Brock commercial grain holding bins were one product featured. Ranging in size from 4.57 meters to 9.14 meters with capacities of up to 1,177 cubic meters or about 970 tonnes, the bins include uniquely designed galvanized steel sidewall stiffeners that mount on the outside of the bin; they are so strong only two are needed per body sheet, saving on bin erection costs. The bins also have 45° center draw hoppers with 30.5 centimeter openings and heavy duty rack and pinion unloading gates, allowing for easy ground level operation.

Some of the smaller commercial holding bins feature a totally galvanized steel substructure, including support beam and legs. The larger models feature high-grade, epoxy painted steel. All are backed by a five-year commercial bin warranty.

 Two models of micro-component scales, the MKW 16 and the MKW 24, were displayed by Happle GmbH, Weissenhorn, Germany.

Each model consists of a conical weighing container with a pneumatically operated discharge flap. The scale is suspended on three pressure cells, and the containers, which are arranged in a circular form, have a discharge worm that doses the product into the weighing container.

The storage containers have a volume of about 300 liters, and each is fitted with a feeding grid. The geometry of the containers, with only one inclined wall and rounded corners, means arching is practically eliminated.

The worm discharge is fitted with a dead-weight flap, which can be fitted with pneumatic cylinders when using very small amounts. The worms are driven by electric motors, enabling the dosing speed to be controlled using a frequency transformer.

The weighing vessel includes a butterfly flap to enable dosage of small amounts. The scale is fitted to a base frame, and the weighing vessel can be supplied with a lining if required.

 Established in 1987, the International Feed Industry Federation, based in Bishop's Cleeve, U.K., brings together national and regional feed associations and federations, as well as others involved in the production of compound animal feeds. Its membership, which totals nearly 50, comprises national and regional feed associations, universities, banks and feed industry suppliers.

The I.F.I.F.'s objectives include representing and promoting the interests of the world's feed industry. The group helps to organize conferences and exhibitions, examines and advises on common problems and collects and publishes industry information and feed production statistics. The organization has been actively involved in feed manufacturing conferences throughout the world and has provided assistance and advice to feed industries in Russia, Ukraine and Romania.

The I.F.I.F. also sponsors a Conference Paper Service, through which members may order reports and presentations from key industry-related meetings. The federation also uses a proactive approach to advance the image of the feed industry with the general public around the world.

 The exhibit of Molen B.V., Breda, the Netherlands, included new developments in weighbridge equipment and systems for grain handling. Featured was the MILC, a new intelligent load cell that uses the latest in micro-processor technology.

The new product is a direct physical replacement for the CSP-M range of compression load cells and is available in capacities of 10, 25, 40, 60 and 100 tonnes. Up to 10 MILC load cells per weighbridge may be accommodated.

The MILC provides direct digital weight information that can be processed further and also can be transmitted over longer distances of up to 500 meters. Built-in self-diagnostics offer a self-checking system with automatic function test and error correction. Sensitivity to static load and other environmental influences also has been reduced significantly.

 Muller Beltex, Pijnacker, the Netherlands, displayed its range of Polysur products for the grain and processing industries.

Featured were the company's Polysur elevator belts and systems, which are available in a variety of models. All models are made with a compact textile belt reinforcement of specially woven synthetic fabrics to give the highest possible pull-out strength for the bucket bolts, allowing operationally safe mechanical belt connections using an overlap or special clamp fasteners.

The Type 272 white elevator belt, available in widths from 100 to 550 millimeters, is designed for use in the food industry, while the Type 272 SBR is used in handling of grain, minerals and non-fat materials for feed production. Other belts are designed to resist oils and fats or to handle hot-oil products.

The company also displayed its Karolee polyurethane sifter cleaning balls, made of highly elastic material that does not absorb moisture and is non-porous. The sifter cleaning balls are long-wearing, non-stick, and bacteriologically safe. They are available in a range of diameters from 13 to 50 mm.

 Ottevanger Machinefabrieken B.V., Moerkapelle, the Netherlands, specializes in design and manufacture of equipment and complete plants for the grain processing and compound feed industries. The company, in operation since 1909, has installations worldwide.

Ottevanger supplies grain and seed cleaning equipment, as well as a wide range of handling and storage systems. These include screw and drag link conveyors, belt and bucket elevators and belt conveyors, bin dischargers and storage silos.

Ottevanger's feed milling developments include auto control and screen changing for hammermills, bomb doors for mixers and micro-ingredient weighing systems accurate to 0.1%. The company's success with its containerized feedmill enabled the development of a containerized flour mill with capacity of up to 120 tonnes per 24 hours.

 For more than 30 years, Prive S.A., Chalons-sur-Marne, France, has been studying, manufacturing, selling and erecting corrugated grain silos for all areas of agriculture around the world. Information on its variety of silos and accessories was highlighted at the company's VICTAM stand.

Prive silos are available in sizes ranging from 20 to 20,000 cubic meters, in flat or hopper bottom design, and feature state-of-the-art aeration systems. Aeration channels are covered with perforated steel panels allowing the best airflow. The channel formulation is calculated for each size of bin and in conjunction with the stored product.

Stiffeners, positioned on the outside, are designed to carry vertical loads to the ground. They are bolted together and to the silo with high tensile bolts, and the base plate is designed to enable the bin to be fixed to the foundation.

 A 10-minute video on automatic sampling, produced by Samplex Ltd., Norfolk, U.K., was shown for the first time at the Samplex stand during the VICTAM '95 trade show. The video, called Quality Watch, features the company's CS 90 automatic sampler and has been produced in English, Spanish, French and German. Copies are available on free loan from Samplex.

Featuring the company's CS 90 automatic sampler, the video describes the benefits of accurate sampling and testing of bulk materials and explains that poor quality means nothing less than lost profits and a damaged business reputation.

As contamination by pesticides and mycotoxins becomes of increasing concern, it is vital that their presence is detected at micro level. Representative sampling therefore is ever more important to ensure accurate assessments.

The CS 90 can sample from a wide range of containers, including trucks, tankers, trailers, railway trucks, bulk bags and bulk bins. Companies filmed using the sampling system represented the feed, bulk grain storage and export industries.

 For more than 100 years, refrigeration technology developed by the company that is now Sulzer Escher Wyss Lindau, Lindau, Germany, has been used in a variety of industrial cooling applications. For the grain and feed industry, Sulzer has used the technology to develop its Granifrigor grain chilling system for cooling grain in storage.

The required cold storage temperature is set on the Granifrigor grain chiller and kept absolutely constant even under fluctuating ambient temperatures. The units also include devices to maintain a constant chilled air humidity (Hygrotherm device). This technique ensures that the required air humidity is maintained even under damp ambient conditions  humid-ification of the grain is excluded.

Cost calculations have shown that the amortization time for grain cooling equipment is short.